Anti-aliasing video camera processing apparatus and method

ABSTRACT

High frequency components of a video signal are attenuated for avoiding aliasing when the video signal is corrected by a non-linear gamma correction circuit. Such high frequency components arise from the video signal harmonics, and also are generated in image contour processing of the video signal. The high frequency components are band limited, thereby linearizing the gamma correction circuit and preventing aliasing. Up-converting the sampling frequency increases a desired band limitation area and defers the generation of high frequency components that cause aliasing. The non-linear gamma correction function is divided into a plurality of sections which are replaced by respective straight-line segments each represented by a linear expression, and gamma correction is effected with a straight-line segment corresponding to the amplitude of the digital video signal.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to video camera processing and, moreparticularly, to preventing aliasing in video camera signals.

A known digital video camera is shown in FIG. 29 and generates videocamera signals which are subject to aliasing. Aliasing is thatphenomenon which occurs when an analog signal is digitally sampled at aninsufficient sampling rate. The lowest sampling rate which produces asampled signal that can be reconverted to the original analog signal isknown as the Nyquist frequency or rate. The resulting aliased signal isa lower frequency version, or “alias”, of the original signal. Aliasingis particularly a problem when a non-linear function, such as a gammacorrection function (FIG. 2A), is applied to the video signal becausethe correction function adds high frequency harmonics to the input videosignal. These high frequency harmonics require a higher sampling ratethan anticipated and, therefore, produce alias signals.

The digital video camera of FIG. 29 is affected by aliasing because itincludes a gamma correction circuit 134 as part of its video camerasignal processing. An optical system 100 provides a focussed image whichis converted into a video signal by a charge coupled pickup or sensingdevice 110 (CCD). The video signal is, then, pre-amplified by apre-amplifier 111 and video amplified by a video amplifier 112. Thevideo amplified signal is digitized by an analog-to-digital converter113 and forwarded to a defect correction circuit 114 for digitalcorrection. The corrected video signal is delayed by a first delaycircuit 115 and, then, further delayed by a second delay circuit 116.The twice delayed video signal is applied to a linear matrix 132 forcorrecting a color reproduction error, which arises because thephotographing performance of the CCD in reality is different from anideal photographing performance. After being combined with an imagecontour signal by an adder 130, the linearized video signal is appliedto a series of correction circuits, which includes a knee correctioncircuit 133, the problematic gamma correction circuit 134 and a B/W clipcircuit 135. The gamma correction circuit 134 applies a non-linearfunction to the video signal which gives rise to the aliasing problem.

The gamma correction circuit of 134 receives digital samples of thevideo signal at a sampling rate f_(S) and converts each received digitalsample into a value which best fits the gamma correction function shownin FIG. 30. That is, the gamma corrected signal is not ideal and resultsin a collection of values which are approximations of the ideal. Whenthis occurs, unwanted frequency harmonics are produced by the gammacorrection function. Where the frequency of the input video signal ishigh, the sampling rate f_(S) may not be sufficient to accuratelyrepresent the input signal. Thus, sampling occurs at a lower rate thanthe Nyquist rate and aliasing occurs.

The aliasing problem is graphically illustrated by FIGS. 31A-31D whichshow the harmonics in the frequency domain. Aliasing occurs when theharmonics overlap with complement harmonics as shown in FIG. 31B. Anideal sinusoidal wave has a single harmonic f and, therefore, yields asinusoidal wave at the output of an ideal gamma correction circuitrepresented by the frequency component at frequency f shown in FIG. 31A.However, the usual gamma correction circuit is not ideal and producesthe harmonics shown in FIG. 31B which are produced at frequenciesaccording to the asymptotic function of sampling theorem. The originalsignal can be reconstructed only so long as the frequency f is low andthe harmonics do not substantially overlap with the harmonics of thecomplement signal at f′, as shown in FIG. 31C. However, aliasing occurswhen the frequency f of the video signal is high and shifts closer toits complement frequency f′. In this situation, as shown in FIG. 31D,the harmonics overlap and are combined and, therefore, the resultingdigital signal yields an aliased analog signal which cannot bereconstructed into the original video signal (FIG. 31D).

Harmonics also arise when image contour processing is applied to thevideo signal. For example, in the video camera of FIG. 29, an imagecontour is emphasized by processing the video signal in the horizontaland vertical directions after the video signal has been delayed by delaycircuits 115, 116 and 117. A vertical direction high pass filter (HPF)121 and a horizontal direction low pass filter (LPF) 122 function topass the vertical direction component of the image contour signal to amultiplier 123. Similarly, a vertical direction LPF 124 and a horizontaldirection HPF 125 pass the horizontal direction component of the imagecontour signal to a multiplier 127. The vertical and horizontal contoursignals are multiplied by respective gain adjustment signals applied torespective terminals 144 and 145 to emphasize the contours in themultipliers 123, 127, respectively. The emphasized vertical andhorizontal contour signals are combined by an adder 128 to form theemphasized image contour signal which is fed to a limiter 129 forlimiting the output of the adder 128 such that the resultant limitedsignal is not overly emphasized.

The image contour processing also generates high frequency componentswhich give rise to the aliasing problem. More specifically, when thegamma correction circuit 134 digitally samples the contour signalscontained in the output of adder 130 and which contains high frequencycomponents, aliasing occurs and the original contour signal cannot bereconstructed.

Although the problem of aliasing which arises from contour imageprocessing would be avoided if the contour image signal is combined withthe video signal after gamma correction, another problem arises becausethe gamma correction function serves to amplify the video signal.Therefore, if the contour image signal is combined with the video signalafter gamma correction, the contour image signal is relatively small ascompared with the amplified video signal. As a result, the contour of animage is not adequately represented in the displayed video picture.Thus, it is not a sufficient solution to combine the image contoursignal with the gamma corrected video signal after gamma correction.

The problem of aliasing will be further explained with reference to FIG.32 which schematically depicts a simplified configuration of the videocamera shown in FIG. 29, and in which a video signal is received atinput terminal 160 and digitized by an analog-to-digital converter 161to produce the digitized video signal (a_(S)) of FIG. 33. The digitizedvideo signal (a_(S)) is output to a high pass filter 162 (correspondingto the contour image processing circuitry) and to a low pass filter 164(corresponding to the linear matrix 132). The image contour processedsignal (b_(S)) of FIG. 34 is combined with the linearized video signal(c_(S)) of FIG. 35 by an adder 168 to yield the video signal withemphasized contours (d_(S)) of FIG. 36. The emphasized video signal(d_(S)) is fed to a gamma correction circuit 167 which produces thegamma corrected signal (e_(S)) of FIG. 37 at an output terminal 169.

It will be noted from FIG. 33 that the signal (a_(S)) includes severalfrequency harmonics which are filtered by the high pass filter 162,resulting in the image contour signal (b_(S)) shown in FIG. 34 havingthe low frequency components removed. Conversely, the low pass filter164, representing the linear matrix 132 (FIG. 29), filters out highfrequency components and results in the linearized signal (c_(S)) ofFIG. 35 having its high frequency components removed. The combinedsignal (d_(S)) shown in FIG. 36 is the sum of the image contour signal(b_(S)) and the linearized signal (c_(S)). At this point, it will benoticed that the combined signal (d_(S)) includes several frequencycomponents which is indicative of the frequency modulated nature of thissignal. Thus, when the combined signal (d_(S)) is applied to thenon-linear gamma correction circuit 167, the gamma corrected signal(e_(S)) is distorted as shown in FIG. 37 due to the aliasing problem. Asshown in FIGS. 39-42, the same distortion occurs when a burst signal inFIG. 38 is input as the video signal. The burst signals at each nodeshown by FIGS. 39-42 are distorted in a manner similar to the signals inFIGS. 34-37, respectively. The resulting gamma corrected burst signal(e_(B)) of FIG. 42, therefore, suffers from the same distortion due tothe aliasing problem as does the gamma corrected video signal shown inFIG. 37.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a videocamera which avoids the undesirable effects of aliasing.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a video camera orthe like which can avoid aliasing due to non-linear processing,especially gamma correction processing, and carry out contourhighlighting irrespective of the level of the main line video signal.

A further object of the invention is to provide a method for processinga digital video signal in a video camera so as to provide gammacorrection or other signal modifications in accordance with non-linearfunctions while avoiding aliasing.

In accordance with an aspect of this invention, a video camera isprovided with a signal modifying circuit for modifying an amplitudelevel of a digital video signal according to a non-linear curve thatrepresents a desired modified digital video signal as a function of thedigital video signal, such circuit comprising:

means for dividing said non-linear curve into a plurality of sectionsand replacing each of said sections with a respective straight-linesegment which can be expressed as a linear expression to form asuccession of straight-line segments;

low pass filter means to which the digital video signal is supplied toproduce a filtered digital video signal in which high frequency signalsof the digital video signal capable of causing aliasing are attenuated;

means for generating a multiplying coefficient and an adding coefficientof a linear expression of one of said straight-line segmentscorresponding to an amplitude level of the filtered digital videosignal;

means for multiplying an amplitude level of the digital video signal bythe multiplying coefficient to produce a multiplied digital videosignal; and

means for combining said multiplied digital video signal and said addingcoefficient to generate said modified digital video signal.

In accordance with another aspect of this invention, a video camerahaving means for generating a digital video signal is further providedwith:

means for generating a modified digital video signal by modifying anamplitude level of said digital video signal according to anapproximated curve obtained by dividing a non-linear curve, thatrepresents said modified digital video signal as a function of saiddigital video signal, into a plurality of sections and replacing each ofsaid sections with a respective straight-line segment to form asuccession of straight-line segments;

means for generating an image enhancing signal from said digital videosignal;

means for generating an inclination coefficient of a respective one ofsaid line segments corresponding to an amplitude level of said digitalvideo signal;

means for generating s modified image enhancing signal whose amplitudelevel is proportional to said inclination coefficient; and

means for combining said modified image enhancing signal and saidmodified digital video signal so as to produce an image enhancedmodified digital video signal.

In accordance with a further aspect of this invention, a method ofprocessing a digital video signal in a video camera comprises the stepsof correcting high frequency components of said digital video signal byapplying a linear correction function to said high frequency componentswithin a frequency range affected by aliasing; and

correcting low frequency components of said digital video signal byapplying a non-linear correction function to said low frequencycomponents of said digital video signal outside said frequency rangeaffected by aliasing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above, and other objects, features, and advantages of the presentinvention will become apparent from the following detailed descriptionof illustrative embodiments which is to be considered in connection withthe accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital signal processing cameraaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2A is a graph showing a gamma correction curve;

FIG. 2B is a graph showing an approximation of the gamma correctioncurve constituted by a succession of linear segments;

FIG. 2C is a graph showing a low pass filtered video signal applied tothe gamma correction curve;

FIG. 3 is a schematic block diagram showing a simplified representationof the camera shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a graph of a sweep wave signal which may be the digitizedinput to the simplified circuit of FIG. 3;

FIGS. 5-11 are graphs similar to that of FIG. 4, but showing signals atrespective points in the circuit of FIG. 3 and to which reference willbe made in describing the operation of that circuit;

FIG. 12 is a graph of a burst wave video signal which may be thedigitized video signal input to the circuit of FIG. 3;

FIGS. 13-19 are graphs similar to those of FIGS. 5-11, respectively, butshowing the signals at respective points in the circuit of FIG. 3 whenthe burst wave video signal of FIG. 12 is input thereto;

FIG. 20 is a schematic block diagram of a gamma correction circuit thatmay be used in the digital signal processing camera of FIG. 1;

FIG. 21 is a more detailed block diagram of a coefficient generatingcircuit included in the gamma correction circuit of FIG. 20;

FIG. 22 is a diagram to which reference will be made in describing howfrequency up-conversion may be employed for avoiding the production of afolding component in non-linear processing;

FIGS. 23A and 23B demonstrate band limitation by means of zero insertionand low pass filtering;

FIGS. 24A, 24B and 24C illustrate a folding component remaining afterthe processing of FIGS. 23A and 23B;

FIGS. 25A and 25B illustrate harmonic components and folding componentsthat may remain after the processing of FIG. 23A and 23B;

FIGS. 26A and 26B respectively demonstrate an attenuation equal to ormore than f_(S)/2 being sufficiently carried out and not carried out,respectively;

FIGS. 27A and 27B respectively demonstrate the harmonic and foldingcomponents occurring when attenuation which is equal to or more thanf_(S)/2 is sufficiently carried out;

FIGS. 28A, 28B and 28C are diagrams to which reference will be made indescribing a process of down-converting the digital signal processed bythe zero insertion and the low pass filtering shown in FIGS. 23A and23B;

FIG. 29 is a block diagram of a conventional video camera;

FIG. 30 is a graph illustrating the function of a gamma correctioncircuit included in the camera of FIG. 29;

FIGS. 31A, 31B, 31C and 31D are graphs to which reference will be madein describing aliasing in the frequency domain;

FIG. 32 is a block diagram of a simplified representation of the circuitprovided in the camera shown in FIG. 29 for effecting gamma correction;

FIG. 33 is a graph of a sweep wave signal which may be the digitizedvideo signal input to the circuit of FIG. 32;

FIGS. 34-37 are graphs similar to that of FIG. 33, but showing signalsat respective points in the circuit of FIG. 32, and to which referencewill be made in describing the operation of that circuit;

FIG. 38 is a graph of a burst wave video signal which may be thedigitized video signal input to the circuit of FIG. 32; and

FIGS. 39-42 are graphs similar to those of FIGS. 34-37, respectively,but showing the signals at respective points in the circuit of FIG. 32when the burst wave video signal of FIG. 38 is input thereto.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals designateidentical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, it willbe seen that an embodiment of the invention is shown on FIG. 1 appliedto a digital signal processing video camera in which light from asubject is input through an optical system 1, and focussed thereby on aCCD image pickup device 10. The CCD pickup device 10 is composed ofthree CCD image sensors corresponding to respective R (red), G (green)and B (blue) channels that is, the three optical primary colors.Further, these three CDD image sensors are arranged such that each pixelconstituting a pixel of one of the three primary colors (in this case,for example, a G pixel) is spaced (optically) by ½ pixel pitch from eachof the remaining two pixels (a R pixel and a B pixel). Furthermore, eachof the CCD image sensors may have 500,000 pixels, and be operated at ahorizontal driving frequency of 18 MHz.

An image signal comprised of the three channels R, G and B from the CCDimage sensor 10 is supplied through a pre-amplifier 11 to a videoamplifying circuit 12 in which black/white balance adjustment,black/white shading distortion correction, flare correction and the likeare effected and also the signal amplification is carried out. An outputsignal from the video amplifying circuit 12 is converted into a digitalvideo signal by an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter 13 and sent to adefect correction circuit 14 in which defects, for example, due todefective pixels of the CCD image sensor 10 are suitably corrected.

After the defect correction, the digital video signal is sent to acontour highlight signal generating circuit for carrying out contourhighlight processing in horizontal and vertical directions, that is, forgenerating a contour highlight signal which is a high frequency signalfor correcting an image contour so as to increase resolution. Thecontour highlight signal generating circuit is composed of 1H delaycircuits 15, 16 and 17, a digital high pass filter (HPF) 21 for thevertical direction, a digital low pass filter (LPF) 22 for thehorizontal direction, a digital low pass filter (LPF) 24 for thevertical direction, a digital high pass filter (HPF) 25 for thehorizontal direction, multipliers 23 and 27, an adder 28 and a limiter29.

In the contour highlight signal generating circuit, the 1H delaycircuits 15, 16 and 17 are connected to each other in series to delaythe digital video signal supplied through the defect correction circuit14 by 1H (H being a horizontal period) in sequence, and also inputrespectively delayed digital video data. By reason of the seriesconnection of the delay circuits 15, 16 and 17, the digital videosignals output from the delay circuits 15, 16 and 17 are respectivelydelayed by one, two and three lines in the vertical direction relativeto the digital video signal being concurrently input to the delaycircuit 15.

In the preferred embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 1, thedelayed signals from the circuits 15, 16 and 17 are output to zeroinsertion circuits 18, 19 and 20, respectively. The zero insertioncircuits 18, 19 and 20 function to up-convert the digital frequency ofthe respective delayed signals by inserting zero data at points betweenthe digital samples of the delayed signals. When zero data is insertedhalf-way between the successive digital samples, as shown in FIG. 23A,the effect is to double the number of samples in the digital signal, asshown in FIG. 23B, that is, the effective sampling rate of the videocamera is doubled. Since aliasing occurs when the sampling rate is belowthe Nyquist rate, doubling the sampling rate by means of the zeroinsertion data technique, which will be further described below, assistsin eliminating the aliasing problem. Although zero insertion circuits18-20 are employed in the preferred embodiment of the present inventionbeing now described, it will be appreciated that the present-inventionmay be employed without such zero insertion circuits.

Returning to FIG. 1, it will be seen that the up-converted signals fromthe zero insertion circuits 18, 19 and 20 are supplied through the HPF21 and then through the LPF 22 for extracting a vertical direction imagecontour component or signal from the digital video data passed throughHPF 21 and LPF 22. Simultaneously, the digital video data shifted bydelay circuits 15, 16 and 17, respectively, and passed through zeroinsertion circuits 18, 19 and 20, are further passed through the LPF 24and then the HPF 25 for extracting a horizontal direction image contourcomponent or signal from the digital video data.

The vertical direction image contour component or signal extracted bythe HPF 21 and LPF 22 is sent to the multiplier 23, which multiples thevertical direction image contour signal by a gain adjustment valueapplied to a terminal 44 for emphasizing the vertical direction imagecontour signal. The horizontal direction image contour signal extractedby LPF 24 and HPF 25 is, in the illustrated embodiment of the invention,fed through a low pass filter (LPF) 26, whose function is hereinafterfurther described, to multiplier 27 for multiplication by a gainadjustment value applied to a terminal 45 so as to emphasize thehorizontal direction image contour signal. The adder 28 combines theemphasized vertical and horizontal image contour signals from themultipliers 23 and 27, respectively, and supplies the resulting combinedimage contour signal to a limiter 29 which limits the combined signal toa normalized range. The limited combined image contour signal fromlimiter 28 is applied as one of the inputs to a multiplier 30.

In the illustrative embodiment of the invention, the digital videosignal to which the combined image contour or highlight signal is to beadded, as hereinafter described, is derived from the zero insertioncircuit 19 and is also sent to a low pass filter (LPF) 31 thatattenuates the high frequency components of the digital video signal onthe so-called main line. The attenuated video signal is supplied fromLPF 31 to a linear matrix 32 which is provided in order to correct acolor reproduction error resulting from the photographing performance ofthe CCD image sensor 10 being different from an ideal photographingperformance thereof.

Non-linear processing of the digital video data from linear matrix 32are affected in a knee correction circuit 33 and then in a gammacorrection circuit 34 which function, for example, as a levelcompressing/expanding means. The high frequencies of the video signal onthe main line are attenuated in the LPF 31 so as to have an amplitudethat is smaller than a deviation between two successive sampling pointson the gamma correction function (FIG. 2C). Since the gamma correctioncircuit 34 naturally applies an interpolation when the input signalfalls between two sampling points on the gamma correction function, thegamma correction function may be thought of as being made up of aplurality of connecting line segments (FIG. 2B). Thus, in accordancewith the present invention, the gamma correction function (FIG. 2A) isreplaced by a plurality of connecting line segments which may be eachexpressed by equation y=ai(x)+bi (FIG. 2B). Since the attenuated videosignal falls entirely within one section of the gamma correctionfunction, the line segment corresponding to that section may be selectedand output as a pair of coefficients (a) and (b) for representing theequation ai(x)+bi.

In the preferred embodiment, the coefficients (a, b) are stored intables, herein referred to as the a-table and the b-table, and which areshown in FIG. 21 at 82 and 83 to be controlled by a level comparisoncircuit 81. The a-coefficient corresponds to an inclination coefficientand represents the slope of the line, while the b-coefficientcorresponds to an adding coefficient and represents an offset along theordinate. The variable (x) is dependent on the amplitude of the videosignal and the coefficients (a, b) are supplied from the a and b tables82 and 83 to arrive at a gamma corrected image contour signal.

It will be appreciated that the video signal at this point contains themain portion of the video picture with various colors. This means thatthe level of the attenuated video signal will vary and, therefore, comewithin different linear or straight-line segments of the gammacorrection function depending on the particular color. In other words,the line segment chosen for the linear gamma correction of the highfrequency components may be any of the straight-line segments withvarious slopes and DC offsets. Thus, the line segment chosen to correctthe video signal will likely include both the inclination coefficient(a) and the adding coefficient (b). In the preferred embodiment,therefore, the a-table and b-table are employed for determining theco-efficients of the respective line segment as shown in FIGS. 20 and 21when correcting the video signal. By contrast, darker colors will fallwithin the line segment that intersects the origin, that is, has noadding coefficient (b), and the b-table will not be utilized.

In this manner, the high frequencies of the video signal are gammacorrected by a linear function. The low frequencies, on the other hand,are not attenuated by the low pass filter 31, but are gamma correctedaccording to the non-linear gamma function (FIG. 2A).

Turning now to the aliasing problem arising from image contourprocessing, a similar technique for gamma correcting the image signalwill be described. It will be recalled that the conventional videocamera of FIG. 29 adds the image contour signal from the limiter 129 tothe video signal from the linear matrix circuit 132 by means of theadder 130, that is, before gamma correction in the circuit 134, but thisresults in aliasing because the image contour processing includes a wideband of frequency harmonics. Although one solution to this aliasingmight be to combine the image contour signal with the video signal afterthe gamma correction, that results in image contour signals which lackemphasis because the image contour signal is not amplified by the gammacorrection circuit.

The present invention prevents aliasing, yet adequately amplifies theimage contour signal by applying gamma correction to the image contoursignal before combining the image contour signal with the video signal.More specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, the image contour signal from thelimiter 29 is gamma corrected in the multiplier 30 by the output of agamma inclination circuit 51. Similar to the correction of the videosignal by the gamma correction circuit 34, the gamma inclination circuit51 applies a linear or straight-line gamma correction function to highfrequencies of the image contour signal while applying a non-lineargamma correction function to low frequencies of the image contoursignal. However, in this case, the image contour signal is not used togenerate the straight-line segment of a gamma correction function to beused for gamma correction of the image contour signal. Instead, thevideo signal up-converted by the zero insertion circuit 19 is fedthrough a low pass filter (LPF) 50 which attenuates the higherfrequencies of the digitized video signal. The low pass filtered signalis applied from the LPF 50 to the gamma inclination circuit 51 whichselects a straight-line segment for high frequencies and the non-lineargamma correction function for low frequencies. The multiplier 30 thenmultiplies the selected line segment or the non-linear function by theimage contour signal. It will be noted that the selected gammacorrection function is in phase with the image contour signal becauseboth the selected function and image contour signal are generated fromthe video signal. In this manner, the gamma correction of the imagecontour signal according to the present invention is effected before theimage contour signal is combined with the gamma corrected video signalsupplied from circuit 34, as in an adder 52. Thus, aliasing is preventedfrom arising due to gamma correction of the image contour signal and yetsuitable emphasis of the image contours in the video image can beachieved.

It will be appreciated that the linear gamma correction function forcorrecting the image contour signal does not utilize the addingcoefficient (b). The inclination coefficient (a) corresponds to a slopeof a line segment of the gamma correction function (FIG. 2C), whereasthe adding coefficient (b) corresponds to an offset of that linesegment. Since the image contour signal represents a dark contour, thatsignal will fall within the line segment that intersects the origin ofthe non-linear gamma correction function of FIG. 2A because that regionof the gamma correction function corresponds to darker colors. Since theline segment at the origin has no adding coefficient, it is notnecessary to employ the b-table in image contour processing.

After the gamma corrected video signal is combined with the gammacorrected image contour signal in the adder 52, the resulting videosignal is sent through a B/W clip processor 35 to a low pass filter(LPF) 36 and then through a decimation circuit 37. The decimationcircuit 37 decimates the video signal, for example, as required by PALtelevision standards, and feeds the decimated signal to a matrix circuit38 for matrixing the decimated signal. More, particularly in matrixcircuit 38, the digital video signal having luminance (Y) and colordifference components (R-Y) and (B-Y) is formed from the digital videodata having the above-mentioned R, G and B values. The matrixed signalis sent to both a composite signal output 42 and a serial digital dataoutput 43. The composite video signal is generated by encoding thematrixed signal by an encoder 39 and then converting the encoded signalinto an analog wave form by a digital-to-analog converter 40. The serialdigital data is generated by forwarding the matrixed signal from circuit38 to a parallel-to-serial converter 41. In this manner, the imagereceived by the video camera is digitally processed without aliasing andoutput either as a composite video signal and/or as serial digital data.

It will be appreciated that the described circuit arrangement embodyingthe present invention is frequency sensitive. The image contour signalsin the lower frequencies outside a frequency range affected by aliasingare gamma corrected with the non-linear gamma correction function (FIG.2A). Conversely, the image contour signals in the higher frequencies aregamma corrected with the linear gamma correction function. This is incontrast to the known video camera of FIG. 29 in which the image contoursignals from limiter 129 are combined in adder 130 with the videosignals from matrix circuit 132 prior to gamma correction of such videosignals in circuit 134, with the result that the image contour signalsas well as the main line video signals are gamma corrected according toa non-linear function regardless of the frequencies.

The manner in which the circuit arrangement described with reference toFIG. 1 inhibits induction of the folding components shown on FIG. 31Band mentioned as resulting from gamma correction with the known circuitof FIG. 29 will now be described with reference to FIG. 3 whichschematically illustrates a simplified representation of the majorcircuit elements in FIG. 1.

More specifically, in FIG. 3, an analog video signal is supplied from aterminal 60 to an A/D converter 61 corresponding to the A/D converter 13shown in FIG. 1. Further, in the A/D converter 61, the analog signal issampled, for example, at a sampling frequency of fs=18 MHz, andconverted into a digital signal A. This digital signal A from the A/Dconverter 61 is sent to a HPF 62 schematically representing the contourhighlight signal generating circuit comprised of the elements 21-28 inFIG. 1, a LPF 64 schematically representing the elements 31, 32 and 33included in the main signal line in FIG. 1, and to a LPF 63corresponding to the LPF 50 shown in FIG. 1.

An output signal D from the HPF 62 is sent to a multiplier 66corresponding to the multiplier 30 shown in FIG. 1. Further, an outputsignal B from the LPF 64 is sent to a gamma correction circuit 67corresponding to the gamma correction circuit 34 shown in FIG. 1, and anoutput signal E from the LPF 63 is sent to a coefficient generatingcircuit 65 corresponding to the gamma inclination coefficient generatingcircuit 51 shown in FIG. 1. An output signal F from the gammainclination coefficient generating circuit 65 is sent to the multiplier66 as the multiplier for the output signal D from the HPF 62.

An output signal G from the multiplier 66 which represents the contourhighlight signal (namely, the high band signal) is added in an adder 68with the output signal C from the gamma correction circuit 67 whichrepresents the main line signal. An output signal H from the adder 68 isapplied to a terminal 69 which may be connected to the B/W clip circuit35 shown in FIG. 1.

The signals at respective positions in FIG. 3 are represented as analogwaves for convenience sake in FIGS. 4-19. When a video signal is inputat terminal 60, the corresponding digital signal A from the A/Dconverter 61 having the sampling frequency of fs=18 MHz is assumed tobe, for example, a sweep signal A_(S) from 0 to 9 MHz as shown in FIG.4. It will be noted that the signal (A_(S)) of FIG. 4 includes a wideband of frequency harmonics as representative of the frequencymodulation nature of the signal. The digitized signal (A_(S)) isfiltered by LPF 64, thus producing the signal (B_(S)) shown in FIG. 5.It will be noted from FIG. 5 that the higher frequency components areattenuated while the lower frequency components are passed. The low passfiltered signal (B_(S)) is gamma corrected by gamma correction circuit67, which applies a linear function to the high frequencies and anon-linear function to the low frequencies of the video signal asdescribed above. The resulting gamma corrected signal (C_(S)) shown inFIG. 6 is sent to adder 68.

The high pass filter 62, as noted above, represents the image contoursignal processing and yields the image contour signal (D_(S)) shown inFIG. 7. The LPF 63, gamma inclination circuit 65 and multiplier 66represent the gamma correction of the image contour signal. The LPF 63filters the digitized signal (A_(S)) and generates the signal (E_(S))shown in FIG. 8. Thus, the high frequency components of the low passfiltered signal (E_(S)) are attenuated and the signal (E_(S)) is sent tothe gamma inclination circuit 65. The gamma inclination circuit 65selects a straight-line segment as the gamma correction function for thehigh frequencies and selects the non-linear gamma function for the lowfrequencies of the video-signal, thereby producing the signal (F_(S))shown in FIG. 9. It will be noted that the signal (F_(S)) representingthe straight-line segment intersecting the origin of the gammacorrection function follows a roughly linear outline. The multiplier 66applies the signal (F_(S)) to the image contour signal (D_(S)) bymultiplying the signals together, and the resulting signal (G_(S)) ofFIG. 10 is sent to the adder 68. The gamma corrected video signal(C_(S)) is combined by the adder with the gamma corrected image contoursignal (G_(S)), resulting in the corrected signal (H_(S)) shown in FIG.11. From comparing the output signal (H_(S)) of the circuit embodyingthe present invention with the output signal (e_(S)) generated by theknown video camera of FIG. 29, it will be appreciated that the presentinvention does not suffer from the distortion shown in FIG. 37.Therefore, the present invention provides gamma correction of both thevideo signal and the image contour signal while avoiding the deleteriousaffects of aliasing.

The same desirable results are achieved when the input video signal isin the form of a burst wave video signal. The burst wave video signal isinput and digitized into the signal (A_(B)) shown in FIG. 12. Thedigitized signal is fed through the LPF 64 yielding the filtered signal(B_(B)) of FIG. 13 (which corresponds to the signal in FIG. 5). Thisfiltered signal (B_(B)) is processed by the gamma circuit 67 yieldingthe gamma corrected signal (C_(B)) shown in FIG. 14 (which correspondsto the signal in FIG. 6). The digitized signal is also processed by theHPF 62 and the LPF 63 yielding the signals (D_(B), E_(B)) shown in FIGS.15 and 16, respectively (corresponding to FIGS. 7 and 8). The filteredsignal (E_(B)) is processed by the gamma inclination circuit 65producing the signal (F_(B)) of FIG. 17 (corresponding to FIG. 9). Thesignals (D_(B)) and (F_(B)) are multiplied together by multiplier 66resulting in the signal (G_(B)) shown in FIG. 18 (corresponding to FIG.10). The signals (C_(B)) and (G_(B)) are added by adder 68 to yield thesignal (H_(B)) shown in FIG. 19 (which corresponds to the signal of FIG.11). As with the resultant signal of FIG. 11, the resultant burst wavevideo signal of FIG. 19 is also free of the effects of aliasing. Thus,the present invention prevents aliasing equally well for both the inputvideo signal of FIG. 4 and the input burst wave video signal of FIG. 12.

In the actual configuration of the gamma correction circuit 34 shown inFIG. 20, the output data from the knee correction circuit 33 shown inFIG. 1 is applied to a terminal 70. High band pass limitation is appliedto the data from terminal 70 by a low pass filter (LPF) 71. Further, thedata input through the terminal 70 is sent through a multiplier 73 andan adder 74 to an output terminal 75. An output from the LPF 71 is sentto a coefficient generating circuit 72, in which the inclination (a) andthe intercept (b) are determined in correspondence to the input level.The data of the inclination (a) is supplied as a multiplying coefficientto the multiplier 73, and the data of the intercept (b) is added to theoutput data of the multiplier 73 in the adder 74.

Further, the coefficient generating circuit 72 may be actuallyconstituted as shown in FIG. 21, in which the output of the LPF 71 issupplied through a terminal 80 to a level comparator 81 for measuring anoutput level of the LPF 71. The output of the level comparator 81 issupplied to a coefficient (a) table 82 and an intercept (b) table 83.Data of the coefficient (a) corresponding to the measured level is readout from the coefficient (a) table 82. Data of the intercept (b)corresponding to the measured level is read out from the intercept (b)table 83.

In the digital signal processing camera in accordance with the presentinvention as described above with reference to FIG. 1, in order tosuppress image degradation brought about by the folding componentresulting from the non-linear processing, such as, the knee correction,the black/white clip and others, in addition to the specificallymentioned gamma correction, a sampling frequency in a non-linearprocessing area is made higher, for inhibiting induction of foldingcomponents within a single band. More particularly, in the digitalsignal processing camera of FIG. 1, the so-called zero technique is usedfor up-converting or increasing the sampling frequency of the digitalvideo signal, and such technique will now be described in more detailwith reference to FIGS. 22-28.

In order to reconstruct the video signal from a sampled video signal,the sampling rate must be at least the Nyquist rate. Another way tovisualize this is by observing the band-widths of each harmonic. Asshown in FIG. 22, the band-width of the LPF 22 (FIG. 1), for example,isolates contour signals in the vertical direction and is different fromthe band limitation of the LPF 26, which isolates contour signals in thehorizontal direction. Meanwhile, the LPF 31 generates video signalswhich require a separate band pass limitation. While the embodimentdepicted in FIG. 1 shows one particular arrangement, it is possible toposition the low pass filters immediately after the respective zeroinsertion circuits 18, 19 and 20 for carrying out the same operation.

It is note-worthy that the particular type of video camera envisioned asembodying the present invention attenuates harmonics lying outside thedesired band limitation area (for example, by use of a low pass filter).Since this type of video camera does not produce a high gain, there isessentially no problem arising from the zero insertion technique.

In any event, the problem of frequency harmonics falling outside thefrequency range f_(S)/2 should be carefully treated. As shown in FIGS.25A and 25B, the unwanted frequency harmonics result in foldingcomponents within the desired band limitation area. For example, thesecond harmonic (f_(S)−f) shown in FIG. 25A generates its own harmonicsat frequencies (f_(S)−f) and 3(f_(S)−f) The folding components of the(f_(S)−f) harmonics are shown as the signals at f_(S)′−2 (f_(S)−f) and3(f_(S)−f)−f_(S)′ in FIG. 25B. It will be noted that the unwanted signalat the frequency 3(f_(S)−f)−f_(S)′ is within the desired bandlimitation. In other words, if the LPFs 22, 26 and 36 do notsufficiently attenuate the harmonics in a frequency range greater thanf_(S)/2, the second harmonic (f_(S)−f) will result in the foldingcomponent at the frequency 3(f_(S)−f)−f_(S)′ and an image distortionoccurs. In addition, the second harmonic is also folded about thefrequency f_(S)/2, resulting in a folding harmonic (f_(S)−2f). As shownin FIG. 25B, this unwanted folding harmonic at frequency (f_(S)−2f) isalso within the desired band limitation area (f_(S)/2) and, therefore,produces an image distortion.

Therefore, it is imperative that the band limitation for each of the lowpass filters includes a sharp cut-off at the frequency f_(S)/2 to ensurethat the unwanted folding harmonics do not “leak” into the desired bandlimitation area and cause an image distortion. The cut-off of the lowpass filters must not only be sharp, but approach the frequency f_(S)/2very closely. For example, assume that the frequency f of the ordinal(i.e., original) video signal=f_(S)/2+α, where α is a slight deviationfrom the frequency f_(S)/2 (i.e., α<<f_(S)/2), that is, f is slightlygreater than the folding frequency f_(S)/2. The folding component of ffolded about the sampling frequency f_(S) is the signal at frequency(f_(S)−f) shown in FIG. 25B. This folding component, in turn, is foldedabout the frequency f_(S)/2 producing a second folding component at(f_(S)−2f). Since α=f−f_(S)/2, solving the equation f_(S)−2f for ayields −2α. Therefore, when α is very small, the second foldingcomponent approaches zero (as in the case of a direct current) and asevere folding distortion occurs.

Now assuming that the ordinal frequency f=f_(S)/3+α (α<<f_(S)/2), thenthe folding component at the third order harmonic of the foldingcomponent (f_(S)−f) from f_(S) is the signal at 3(f_(S)−f)−f_(S)′, shownin FIG. 25B. Solving for α, this equation yields 3α. When a is verysmall, the folding component approaches zero (as in a direct current)and again causes a severe folding distortion. In the case off=f_(S)/3+α, a second order folding component from f_(S) (f_(S)=f) alsoarises. This additional folding component is positioned at frequencyf_(S)−2f (FIG. 25B) and, solving for f, yields f_(S)/3−2 α. Thus, when αapproaches zero, the folding component of the second harmonic is nearf_(S)/3 within the desired gamma limitation area (f_(S)/2) and causes anadditional folding distortion.

In the case where f=f_(S)/4+α (αis<<f_(S)/2), the second harmonic ispositioned at (f_(S)/3+α) and its folding component is (f_(S)−2f) or(f_(S)/2−α). In such case, the folding component of the second harmonicis just within the desired band limitation area (f_(S)/2) when αapproaches zero.

In each of the above instances, the second harmonic generates foldingcomponents within the desired band limitation area. Therefore, it ispreferred that attenuation factors in the vicinities of the secondharmonic for each of these instances (i.e., at frequencies f_(S)/2,2f_(S)/3 and 3f_(S)/4) be set as large as possible.

However, low pass filters are defined for a single band, the presentcase being within the frequency band (f_(S)/2). As a solution forattenuating the second harmonics at the frequencies (2f_(S)/3) and(3f_(S)/4), the sampling is carried out in advance at a frequency(f_(S)) higher than a necessary band. This solution tends to make theattenuation factor in the vicinity of the frequency (f_(S)/2) larger,thereby adequately attenuating all unwanted harmonics.

FIGS. 26A and 26B depict the band pass limitations of filters which havegradual and sharp cut-off characteristics, respectively. It will beappreciated that the filter with the gradual cut-off shown in FIG. 26Awill not prevent the described image distortion. In situations where agradual cut-off of the filter cannot be altered, however, the foldingdistortion component may be removed by substituting the color signalsR+G for the high band component by applying space pixel shifting to theCCD image sensor 10 (FIG. 1), for example. By removing the high bandcomponent in this manner, the folding distortion components do notappear and an image distortion is prevented.

It will be appreciated, however, that the space pixel shifting techniquehas little influence in reality because the CCD image sensor suffersfrom a magnification chromatic aberration at the peripheral portion ofthe screen. This aberration generates high frequency components alongthe periphery of the screen, resulting in a folding distortion. It willbe noted that the screen periphery distortion may be an acceptablealternative, however, because it is smaller by a factor of ten than theimage distortion resulting from the described up-conversion.

As a practical matter and as previously mentioned, the CCD image sensingdevice 10 comprises three channels of 500,000 pixels each. Due to thehigh number of pixels per screen, the sampling frequency (f_(S)) is at amaximum and, therefore, the up-conversion frequency (f_(S)′) cannot bemade too high. This is not a problem, however, because the signal bandof the CCD image sensing or pickup device is limited to a range from DCto 6 MHz according to the CCIR Recommendation 601. Thus, the attenuationfactor is set in the present invention at the frequency equal to or morethan 9 MHz (FIG. 26B) to prevent any folding distortion. Therefore, evenif a signal as shown in FIG. 27A is input to the non-linear processingcircuit, only the ordinal signal at the frequency (f) and its naturalharmonics are induced.

Post-processing of the video signal after non-linear processing will nowbe discussed. The post-processing consumption of power is proportionalto the sampling frequency. In order to reduce the consuming of power,therefore, the sampling frequency is down-converted (or decimated), asin the circuit 37, before post-processing. Harmonic components arefolded, however, when a decimation process is performed, giving rise toaliasing. Therefore, the LPF 36 is provided in advance of the decimationcircuit 37 to eliminate this folding image distortion. This can be seenfrom FIGS. 28A, 28B and 28C, wherein the signal after the B/W clipcircuit 35 (FIG. 1) is shown in FIG. 28A. The LPF 36 filters out thesecond and third harmonics, leaving the ordinal signal at the frequency(f) intact as shown in FIG. 28B. The down-conversion or decimation isperformed in circuit 37 by digitally sampling the signal after low passfiltering at a lower sampling rate (f_(S)″), as shown in FIG. 28C.

It will be noted that the folding component of the ordinal signal atfrequency (f) is down-shifted to the frequency (f_(S)−f). When thedown-conversion sampling frequency (f_(S)″) is greater than thefrequency (f_(S)/2), the LPF 36 filters out the high frequencycomponents at frequencies greater than (f_(S)/2) as before. On the otherhand, where the down-conversion frequency (f_(S)″) is smaller than thefrequency (f_(S)/2), the LPF 36 must filter out high frequencycomponents with frequencies greater than the frequency (f_(S)″/2) inorder to cancel the folding distortion components in the area betweenthe frequencies (f_(S)″/2 and f_(S)/2).

It will be appreciated that the down-conversion frequency (f_(S)″) doesnot have to return to the original sampling frequency (f_(S)). Forexample, the original sampling frequency (f_(S)) may be set to 18 Mhz(in correspondence to the horizontal driving frequency of the CCD in thesensing or pickup device 10 with 500,000 pixels), while the non-linearprocessing frequency (f_(S)′) may be set to 36 MHz (which is twice theoriginal sampling frequency). The down-conversion frequency (f_(S)″) is,then, set to 13.5 MHz to be in accordance, for example, with a serialdigital communication standard. It is to be understood that otherfrequency settings are possible to suit other situations.

Thus, the present invention provides an anti-aliasing video camera forpreventing aliasing arising from high frequency folding distortion,especially due to non-linear processing.

Although an illustrative embodiment of the invention has been describedin detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is tobe noted that the invention is not limited to that embodiment, and thatvarious changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilledin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionwhich is intended to be defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A video camera comprising: means for generating adigital video signal; means for generating a modified digital videosignal by modifying an amplitude level of said digital video signalaccording to an approximated curve obtained by dividing a non-linearcurve that represents said modified digital video signal as a functionof said digital video signal into a plurality of sections and replacingeach of said sections with a respective line segment to form asuccession of line segments, said means for generating said modifieddigital video signal including a coefficient table and an intercepttable for storing coefficients for forming said succession of linesegments; means for generating an image enhancing signal from saiddigital video signal; means for generating an inclination coefficient ofa respective one of said line segments corresponding to an amplitudelevel of said digital video signal; means for generating a modifiedimage enhancing signal whose said amplitude level is proportional tosaid inclination coefficient; and means for combining said modifiedimage enhancing signal and said modified digital video signal so as toproduce an image enhanced modified digital video signal such thataliasing caused by generating said inclination coefficient from saidnon-linear curve is prevented.
 2. The video camera of claim 1, whereinsaid means for generating the inclination coefficient includes: meansfor selecting one of said line segments according to an amplitude levelof said digital video signal; and means for outputting said inclinationcoefficient of the selected one of said line segments to said modifiedimage enhancing signal generating means.
 3. The video camera of claim 1,wherein said means for generating the inclination coefficient includes alow pass filter for receiving and attenuating high frequency signals ofsaid digital video signal which cause aliasing.
 4. The video camera ofclaim 1, wherein said means for generating the modified image enhancingsignal includes multiplying means for multiplying an amplitude level ofsaid image enhancing signal by said inclination coefficient.
 5. Thevideo camera of claim 1, wherein said non-linear curve that representsthe modified digital video signal is a gamma correction function.
 6. Thevideo camera of claim 1, wherein said means for generating a digitalvideo signal includes analog video signal generating means forgenerating an analog video signal from an optical image, andanalog-to-digital converting means for converting said analog videosignal into said digital video signal.
 7. The video camera of claim 1,further comprising zero insertion means for up-converting the frequencyof said digital video signal and thereby effectively increasing thesampling rate of said digital video signal.
 8. In a video camera havingmeans for generating a digital video signal, a signal modifying circuit,comprising: means for modifying an amplitude level of said digital videosignal according to a non-linear curve that represents a desiredmodified digital video signal as a function of said digital videosignal; means for dividing said non-linear curve into a plurality ofsections and replacing each of said sections with a respective linesegment which can be expressed as a linear expression to form asuccession of line segments, said means for dividing comprising acoefficient table and an intercept table for storing coefficients forforming said succession of line segments; low pass filter means to whichsaid digital video signal is supplied to produce a filtered digitalvideo signal in which low frequency signals are passed and highfrequency signals of said digital video signal are attenuated; means forgenerating a multiplying coefficient and an adding coefficient from arespective linear expression of one of said line segments for said highfrequency signals of said filtered digital video signal; means formultiplying said amplitude level of said digital video signal by saidmultiplying coefficient to produce a signal such that aliasing caused bysaid high frequency signals is prevented; and means for combining saidmultiplied digital video signal and said modified digital video signal.9. The video camera of claim 8, wherein said means for generating themultiplying and adding coefficients includes: means for detecting anamplitude level of said filtered digital video signal; means forselecting said one of the line segments corresponding to the detectedamplitude level; and means for outputting said multiplying coefficientand said adding coefficient of the linear expression of said one of saidline segments.
 10. The video camera of claim 8, wherein said non-linearcurve representing said modified digital video signal is a gammacorrection function.
 11. The video camera of claim 8, wherein said meansfor generating a digital video signal includes analog video signalgenerating means for generating an analog video signal from an opticalimage, and analog-to-digital converting means for converting said analogvideo signal into said digital video signal.
 12. The video camera ofclaim 8, further comprising zero insertion means for up-converting thefrequency of said digital video signal and thereby effectivelyincreasing the sampling rate of said digital video signal.